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Two young girls wearing light blue puffer jackets and matching pink boots sit outside the courtroom, swinging their legs. It is Watford County Court in mid-December and duty solicitor Ruth Camp is facing one of more than a dozen cases of the day, dealing with tenants facing eviction. As the four-year-old plays a unicorn-themed game on her mother’s phone, her uncle explains the family’s situation.
Their private landlord has been granted a possession order that is set to take effect in two days’ time and the mother and two children, aged four and seven, need more time before they are made homeless. The mother is on Universal Credit and, despite having four months’ notice of eviction, they have not been able to find a new private landlord who wants to rent to a family on benefits. They’ve applied to the council for homelessness help but have not received anything.
The landlord served them with a section 21 eviction notice – something that all political parties have pledged to ban – which means the family are not at fault. Inside the courtroom, Ms Camp, from housing charity Shelter, addresses Judge Richards, warning him that “we are fast approaching the Christmas period” when emergency housing help will be harder to access.
In a hearing that lasts less than 15 minutes, Judge Richards agrees that the family would suffer “exceptional hardship” if the date of possession is not delayed and he extends the order until 9 January, the furthest he can extend it to, and the case is dismissed.
It is the 13th case he has dealt with that day; in a range that illustrates the sharp end of London’s housing crisis. In each case, some scheduled for 30 minutes and some 15, a person is fighting to keep their home.
As a duty solicitor, Ms Camp is there to give free legal representation to those who need it – given a few minutes to get to grips with the client’s case before she is whisked into courtroom two. The courtroom itself is sparse but modern, with the feel of an office boardroom. The judge sits elevated, with the royal coat of arms behind him and a row of ring binders in front of him, raised over a few lines of desks where the claimant and defendant sit. Outside, tenants and landlords sit together on a row of chairs, waiting to be called by the kindly court usher.
With 13 cases on the list, this is a quieter day at Watford County Court, Ms Camp says. There are usually around 20 cases each day, and Ms Camp sees some 400 clients each year. The skill is to understand the facts of the situation, and get her client to open up to her about any relevant issues, all in the short time allotted before the case is heard.
For some, there are deep-seated problems, such as private health issues or domestic abuse, which tenants can find hard to speak about. But the fact they are at the courtroom and speaking to the duty solicitor, is often the first step.
“There are an awful lot of people who get listed for court hearings and don’t come. Sometimes they don’t think they should or they get scared. Maybe they’ve been hiding from their post; they bury their heads in the sand and hope that the big pile of papers by their postbox will go away of its own volition,” Ms Camp explains.
The people she sees range from a tenant who had to walk three hours to get to court because he didn’t have enough money to pay for a bus, to a homeowner living in a house worth around £15m who had got into considerable mortage arrears.
Today, some people have got thousands of pounds of rent arrears and need time to pay back the debt. One person has been unable to pay their mortgage and the lender is seeking a possession order – something that Ms Camp says is getting more frequent as people’s fixed-rate mortgages come to an end and their rates are hiked up.
In another case, a landlord is in court seeking possession of his flat in 14 days. His tenant is in rental arrears of £11,250, has not attended the hearing that morning, and there is no one there to represent him. The last time the landlord heard from his tenant was during a check of the property on 11 October. The judge grants the possession order and additional legal costs of £891.
Next up is a 39-year-old nail technician who has cleared £10,300 of rental debts to her housing association just before the hearing. She lives in a £1,275-a-month two-bed flat in Kentish Town with her seven-year-old son and 14-year-old daughter. She’s been going through radiation treatment to reduce a lump on her thyroid, but is on the mend.
As she’s only got £36 outstanding to pay of her rent, the housing association can’t apply for a possession order on her home, but they are asking for thousands more in legal fees. The mother-of-two says she’s happy to pay the costs in monthly installments in return for the disrepair to be fixed at the property.
A victim of domestic violence, her main concern is that the front door is swinging away from the door frame.
Ahead of the next hearing, another mother-of-two is debating whether it is better to become homeless now or in March.
The 49-year-old, who lives in Bushey with her 22-year-old daughter and 15-year-old son, has been struggling with her mental health since lockdown. She’s got into £5,000 of rent arrears to her private landlord, and has also been battling mould and disrepair in the two-bed flat.
Ahead of the hearing, her landlord has offered to write off the arrears if the family move out and agree not to pursue a claim for disrepair. He’s suggested a three-month grace period where the mother would have time to find somewhere new to live. But she is worried that if she is given three months the local council will refuse to help her.
Finding a new private-rented home would mean moving to a three-bed flat, which she would likely not be able to afford on the income she gets from Universal Credit and part-time hairdressing. If she will have to ask the council for emergency homelessness housing anyway, perhaps it is better to do it sooner rather than later, she suggests.
“I know my son is already having problems at school. I just don’t want this drama to be happening when my son is studying,” she says. A compromise is reached for the possession order to be enforced on 10 February and the judge agrees to the plan in a short hearing.
Reflecting on the case afterwards, Ms Camp says: “It is always about striking a balance between what the court can do, and what is best for the client. For her, she needed to move on, so how can we do that in a way that will put her in the best light with the local authority. It’s not her fault that she has been living in accommodation that is substandard and has disrepair, but lots of local authorities will say you’ve got rent arrears and therefore you are intentionally homeless.”
Another mother, who has rent arrears of over £3,000, struggles to explain her situation to Ms Camp in the private consultation room just off the main waiting area. She used to live with her 17-year-old and 15-year-old children in a three-bed housing association flat. But her children are now living with her ex-partner. She pulls the sleeves of her jumper as she says how worried she is about them.
“My daughter started vaping at the age of 13 and my ex-partner just bought vapes for her to sell at school. He thought if she is vaping then she might as well make some money. I now think that she is living with strangers and she has quit college.”
She starts to cry as she explains she didn’t realise she could have got a lodger to help her pay the rent. “I don’t want to be homeless. I’m just not in a good position financially,” she says.
She is trying to support herself by working part-time at Tesco and as a personal trainer in a gym, and a charity has offered to pay off some of her arrears but the housing association needs to approve the payment.
The housing association is seeking a possession order to take the flat back over the unpaid rent, but they agree to postpone the case for six months to give the single mother time to sort out a payment plan. Ms Camp relays the news to her. “Oh my god,” she says under her breath in relief.
Source: independent.co.uk
